Our Team

Formed Finance Birmingham with Birmingham City Council and has led the growth of the business from a Business Loan Fund of £10 million to over £700 million through a range of funds and programmes both locally and on a national scale. With over a decade’s experience of CEO posts in regulated businesses including, The Exchange, Regional Stock Exchange and Finance Birmingham, Sue is passionate about the SME community and the role they play in the economy’s recovery and growth. She has a strong commercial focus and corporate experience has secured the support of both public and private sector initiatives.

An experienced Private Equity practitioner for over 20 years and winner of Midlands Dealmaker Awards four times with Bridgepoint (once) and LDC (three times). John is a seasoned Non-Executive Director having held numerous board seats in a private equity and independent capacity during that period. Previously he was a Senior Director of LDC and currently chairs the Investment Committees of Finance Birmingham and CCF (Capital Creative Fund) in London. Since leaving LDC in 2005, John has worked on a wide range of SME initiatives both as a Non-Executive Director as well as supporting the growth of the Finance Birmingham portfolio.

Graham is a qualified chartered accountant (KPMG trained) who joined Finance Birmingham in 2014 bringing over 30 years’ experience of investing in, and working with, SMEs. Graham has spent 14 years in the Venture Capital industry. He has held several Fund Principal positions as well as Portfolio Director and Finance Director roles. He has also sat on numerous boards of investee companies.

Pauline has been with Finance Birmingham since its inception in 2010 and has over 20 years’ experience in financial services.  

Pauline manages the day-to-day running of the team at Finance Birmingham.

• Office management roles in financial services since 1996
• Previous roles at Crisp Computing, Marlborough Stirling and Vertex
• Investbx from 2007 before joining Finance Birmingham

Paul is responsible for strengthening existing portfolio and strategic operations.

• 43 years’ experience within NatWest in the Corporate & SME market with various roles in credit control, portfolio management , business development and 10 years as a West Midlands regional director
• Held a non-executive role with the successful Advantage Transition Bridge Fund and was an active member of the both the West Midlands Regional Finance Forum and the Birmingham & Solihull LEP’s Access 2 Finance committee

Steve oversees the AMSCI, Tooling and Rail Funds, which help to grow and strengthen manufacturing supply chains across an England wide geography.

• Over 35 years’ experience in the Birmingham banking arena
• Head of private banking for Bank of Scotland
• Director roles for both large corporate trading and real estate teams at Bank of Scotland

Andy helps to deliver the national AMSCI fund, which helps to strengthen manufacturing supply chains across the UK.

• 24 years working at NatWest in corporate and commercial banking roles ultimately as Relationship Director 
• Extensive experience working with SME clients with turnover in region of £2m-£25m
• Sectors including manufacturing, leisure, professionals and retail

Diane helps monitor the delivery of the AMSCI Fund to eligible companies within the manufacturing industry.

• 28 years working at Allied Irish Bank as Business Relationship Manager

Jack’s role as an Investment Director at Finance Birmingham is to help deliver a number of national and regional funding programmes and is a strategic lead for the Rail Supply Growth Fund.

• Worked in senior roles for central and local government more recently for Birmingham City Council to design, develop and deliver various types of business support and funding programmes in both the UK and in overseas market.

Marie joined Finance Birmingham to work on the £24m National Tooling Fund. 

• Over 25 years’ experience of banking and financial services industry, starting her career with HSBC then moving to Bank of Scotland Corporate working with the lead director on a portfolio of large corporate clients with turnover in excess of £25m. She then moved to Bank of Scotland Private Banking, leading the Birmingham office credit team. 
  
  
• Holds the CIOBS diploma in Advanced Specialist Lending.

Annmarie provides administration support to the rapidly expanding team at Finance Birmingham.

• Previous roles at Barclays Bank and Business Link, both in the Midlands

Jeremy helps to deliver the national AMSCI Fund.

• Business Banking Manager for 20 years at Lloyds TSB
• Senior roles at Birmingham Business Link from 1996 – Head of European Funded Programmes and Head of Business Transformation
• Extensive experience of both public and private funding

Clive is an experienced finance professional who is responsible for managing our portfolio of Growth Capital investments. He helps drive our portfolio and risk management process, ensuring we can help maximise and protect the capital value of our investments. 

He joined the team at Finance Birmingham in 2012 and as Investment Director led a number of debt and equity investments. Prior to that he spent 10 years with KPMG Corporate Finance working alongside a variety of mid market privately owned and private equity backed businesses. 

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant who has also spent two years with Royal Bank of Scotland managing a portfolio of venture capital backed businesses

Chrissy leads the development of Finance Birmingham’s Marketing and PR activity, this includes devising and implementing a Marketing plan, maintaining collateral, tools and resources, and building the Finance Birmingham brand. She also supports the growing Portfolio function, monitoring monthly financial information and developing risk management processes.

• Has over 15 years’ experience of working in a variety of business support roles for professional services companies
  
  
• Holds a First class BA Hons in Business and Management from Oxford Brookes University

Amy joined the team as Marketing Executive. Her role is to deliver the marketing strategy for the business, including the coordination of its range of social and digital channels and the design of its range of materials.

• Holds a Masters degree in Visual Communication, specialising in copywriting and graphic design, from Birmingham City University.

Kathryn was brought in to support the expanding operations department. Her main focus is to provide the growing investment teams with the day-to-day resources and administration they need as well as facilitating the range of clients, events and activities within the office.

• Holds a Masters degree from Aston University.
• Training to become a Chartered Accountant.